Fine Arts School of Paris

The Paris Fine Arts School is one of the oldest and most prestigious art schools. Félix Duban (1797-1870) became its architect in the wake of the 1830 revolution. He would transform this high place of creativity into a veritable palette of architectures. From the Porticus of Octavia in Rome to the Florentine palaces, from the loggias of the Vatican to the polychrome frescoes of Pompeii, everything here is a citation, a souvenir - of Duban's study trip to Italy, for example - but also an ode to the past that remains exemplary for the students. Everything is created to educate the eye of these future artists. Duban thus organizes the general composition of the space around authentic fragments of monuments of the French Renaissance, harmoniously cohabiting different traditions and styles. It is a romantic vision of architecture - in rebellion against the academicism of the time -, a tribute to art as a whole whose perenniality is explained by its very diversity. Archives, models: a fascinating discovery of a unique site, a palace of timeless arts, in the heart of Paris.